THE one-way street is to be phased out in residential areas as part of a government plan to give pedestrians greater rights to road space.
The far-reaching changes, which reverse decades of thinking on street design, will also see the introduction of narrower carriageways, unexpected sharp corners and deliberate blind spots at junctions, intended to slow traffic to 20mph.
Ministers will risk the wrath of the motoring lobby with a declaration this week that drivers and pedestrians should share road space in residential areas.
The Department for Transport guidelines, Manual for Streets, will state that streets should be designed as “social places, not just traffic spaces”.
One-way streets have been singled out for criticism by the transport department, which says that rather than reduce “rat runs” they actually encourage speeding, prolonging journeys and inconveniencing cyclists.
Louise Duggan, one of the authors of the guidelines said: “Since the late 1950s, the number of cars on the roads have meant they have taken priority. Now we have realised our roads should be used for more than getting from A to B. Our highways make up 80% of our public realm and we have realised it is wrong that we are only doing one thing with this space.”
Speed bumps and measures used to separate traffic from pedestrians will be rejected under the new concept of “shared space”.
“Overprovision for safety has led to riskier behaviour,” said Duggan. “Research done by the Transport Research Laboratory showed that where we provided wide streets and maximum forward visibility, drivers drove more riskily.”
Roads and pavements are to be built at the same level, and the transport department’s guidance recommends that trees be planted at the roadside, to make cars slow down.
There are also proposals for “pocket parks” — small grassed areas with trees, plants and seating close to roads — to encourage informal socialising in a neighbourhood.
A redesign of T-junctions with sharper corners rather than gentle curves will remove sightlines to force cars to come to a halt, rather than drive across at speed.
The guidance will apply to any existing streets that are redesigned, and to streets built for the 185,000 new homes constructed each year.
There is no plan to reduce the speed limit in residential areas from 30mph to 20mph, although since 1999 traffic planners have had the right to impose 20mph zones without permission from central government. Statistics from the Transport Research Laboratory show a 57% reduction in deaths and serious injuries in London in such zones.
The transport department’s plans have won the endorsement of the RAC. Robin Cummins, its road safety consultant, admitted some drivers treat one-way streets like “racetracks”.
“We accept the need for pedestrians and drivers to live together better in residential areas,” he said.
But the Association of British Drivers, a lobby group, warned that the plans could lead to confusion about whether drivers or pedestrians have priority and may increase casualties on the roads. Brian Gregory, its chairman, said: “This policy will encourage pedestrians to think they have rights to walk indiscriminately across roads and at the same time it will create a lot of frustrated drivers who may lose their patience.
“If you box somebody up in a deliberately engineered traffic jam and they see an opportunity to make progress it will be like a cork popping out of a champagne bottle. It is human nature that they will take more risks. If the government really wants to solve the traffic problem in residential areas it should build bypasses to transfer traffic from minor to major, where it belongs.”
The vision for more sociable streets is modelled on the Dutch concept of a “woonerf”, a street where children can play safely but cars are allowed at controlled speeds. Similar experiments have been tried in Britain with “home-zones” where bollards, irregular road layouts and play areas have improved conditions for pedestrians.
But cul-de-sacs, the 20th century planner’s favourite technique to create safe areas for pedestrians, are out of fashion. The transport department’s guidance says they concentrate traffic too heavily on a small number of dwellings and require large turning circles.
